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Children of Men (2006)
I love a good concept film. Jim Carrey endowed with God's powers for a week? I'm intrigued. A serial killer who adopts the seven deadly sins as his MO? I'm there. The world has devolved into chaos because women have stopped having children? Just tell me where to sign up.
The last of those three is, of course, the premise behind Children of Men, a strikingly perceptive film that sometimes looks like it takes place in the aftermath of a massive nuclear war. It actually takes place in London in 2027. Fragments of a somewhat futuristic society (dazzling monitors and adverts punctuate almost every scene) contrast with the debris and violence. Without the investment in the future that children represent, our more destructive tendencies are going untamed, and society is beginning to collapse.
Clive Owen plays Theo Faron, a former activist who apparently couldn't beat the government bureaucracy, and decided to join them instead. On the outside, Theo is aloof, unaffected, and sarcastic. But on the inside he, like the rest of the species, is waiting for something to awaken his hope and idealism. And one day, he finds it: a pregnant woman named Kee (played by the appropriately named Claire-Hope Ashitey). He joins up with a group of people keen on overthrowing the establishment, and they begin an effort to deliver Kee to a group of scientists called The Human Project in hopes of finding a "cure" for mankind's infertility.
Amazingly, director Alfonso Cuarón has made a science fiction film about the downfall of society that doesn't include stale warnings of nuclear winter or artificial intelligence. The real danger, we are told, is within, a point which is emphasized through a surprising betrayal.
The film is surely a cautionary tale, but generally has the good sense to let us decide what it is we're being cautioned against. The infertility depicted in the film could represent any number of things. It could be a consequence of pollution, or punishment for a cavalier attitude towards the sanctity of life, or simply the natural result of humanity taking its status and abilities for granted. We're not given an explicit moral, though several clumsy attempts are made to shoehorn the issue of immigration into the proceedings. These are presumably emphasized in an attempt to make the film seem more relevant, but the themes here are so broad and timeless that zeroing in on this one issue steals some of the film's considerable elegance.
Most of the performances are sublime, from Owen's cynical Theo, to Michael Caine's ease and humor. Ashitey is passable as the potential savior of all humanity, but seems like a bit of a caricature at times, perhaps because most of the people around her are deathly serious. The film goes to great lengths, however, to relieve the considerable tension (which is almost unbearable at times) with random moments of levity, every one of which rings true, no matter how irreverant.
Surprisingly absent from the tale is the issue of religion. Most of the major characters spend the duration of the film trying to protect Kee from those who would senselessly harm her. The historical irony of us once again trying to protect a savior from the very people needing to be saved is apparently lost on them.
These flaws notwithstanding, Children of Men is a borderline masterpiece. It is technically brilliant and occasionally funny, but consistently poignant. For all the pessimism on the surface, the film is optimistic at its core. It depicts a world not without hope, but in which hope is dormant, waiting for a spark to ignite it again.
I love a good concept film. Jim Carrey endowed with God's powers for a week? I'm intrigued. A serial killer who adopts the seven deadly sins as his MO? I'm there. The world has devolved into chaos because women have stopped having children? Just tell me where to sign up.
The last of those three is, of course, the premise behind Children of Men, a strikingly perceptive film that sometimes looks like it takes place in the aftermath of a massive nuclear war. It actually takes place in London in 2027. Fragments of a somewhat futuristic society (dazzling monitors and adverts punctuate almost every scene) contrast with the debris and violence. Without the investment in the future that children represent, our more destructive tendencies are going untamed, and society is beginning to collapse.
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Amazingly, director Alfonso Cuarón has made a science fiction film about the downfall of society that doesn't include stale warnings of nuclear winter or artificial intelligence. The real danger, we are told, is within, a point which is emphasized through a surprising betrayal.
The film is surely a cautionary tale, but generally has the good sense to let us decide what it is we're being cautioned against. The infertility depicted in the film could represent any number of things. It could be a consequence of pollution, or punishment for a cavalier attitude towards the sanctity of life, or simply the natural result of humanity taking its status and abilities for granted. We're not given an explicit moral, though several clumsy attempts are made to shoehorn the issue of immigration into the proceedings. These are presumably emphasized in an attempt to make the film seem more relevant, but the themes here are so broad and timeless that zeroing in on this one issue steals some of the film's considerable elegance.
Most of the performances are sublime, from Owen's cynical Theo, to Michael Caine's ease and humor. Ashitey is passable as the potential savior of all humanity, but seems like a bit of a caricature at times, perhaps because most of the people around her are deathly serious. The film goes to great lengths, however, to relieve the considerable tension (which is almost unbearable at times) with random moments of levity, every one of which rings true, no matter how irreverant.
|
These flaws notwithstanding, Children of Men is a borderline masterpiece. It is technically brilliant and occasionally funny, but consistently poignant. For all the pessimism on the surface, the film is optimistic at its core. It depicts a world not without hope, but in which hope is dormant, waiting for a spark to ignite it again.